September 14 2025
Psalm 114
For whatever reason, Covid seems to be back on my social media feed. It seems that just when those thoughts I have about those days have quieted down, Covid finds away back in. When we consider what are some of the worst times to live through, I would say that most people would say it would be those terrifying days when Covid swept over the world. I mean, most everyone had friends and family who caught the virus and many of us knew those who tragically died from Covid. Some, like myself caught Covid and now we find ourselves with lasting problems that we still deal with today. So when we stop and consider the overwhelming devastation that we lived through, it should come as no surprise, that the biggest toll of Covid was not just physical health but our mental health as well. I recently saw a study by the World Health Organization that was done a couple of years after Covid, and worldwide they found that the prevalence of anxiety and depression went up by 25%. Covid caused the world to be forever frightened of being out of control which is anxiety and the realization that there was nothing we could do to be in control which is the very definition of depression. These are the feelings that have forever scarred our world because of going through this time of Covid.
Now we all know that you won’t find any mention of Covid in the Bible, but what we do find are scriptures which paint for us vivid images of people whose faced anxiety and depression.These feelings took over and began to control those very same people who felt so out of control. The place where all of this worry is found is called the wilderness in our scriptures. What may surprise us about this wilderness experience is that this is exactly where God leads his people, to the very place where worry abounds. I believe that God does this so that we who listen in on this story will wonder, why would God do such a thing? Just why would God, place his people in a situation where they realized without any doubt that they were no longer in control? I guess when we ask the question the answer seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? God is the one who forever in control, this is what must be learned there in the wilderness.
Today in this the second of messages concerning our worship in the worst, we are going to take our look at worship one step further, and consider if our worship can stand the test. The test, is this: Is our worship louder than our worry? To help us figure out how it is possible to worship louder than our worries, we are going to listen to a song from the songbook of the people of God called the Psalms. Psalm 114 is part of a collection of six songs that the people of Israel would sing on the night that they celebrated the festival called Passover. Passover, as we may remember is when God shielded his people from the angel of death because they had painted the blood of a lamb upon their doorposts. This terrible night is when the Pharaoh would witness the death of his first born son because of his refusal to submit to the request of God to allow the people of Israel be set free from their slavery. So, Passover was celebrated at the beginning of every year as a way of remembering when their life as a free people became a reality.
We might also recall that Jesus and his disciples celebrated Passover on the very same night when Jesus was going to be betrayed by one follower, another follower of his would deny even knowing him and the rest of his friends would simply abandon Jesus on the very night he needed them most. Now even though Jesus was well aware of what lay ahead of him, he still was able, on this very night, worship his Father. I believe that the truths found in the six songs that Jesus sang on the worst night of his life anchored his soul so that he could worship even in the worst.
As we look at this one-hundred and fourteenth Psalm that was sung by Jesus and his friends, it seems rather straight forward, doesn’t it? This song is continuing the story that began on the night when the people of Israel had been set free by an act of God. In the original wording, we are told that Israel went out from the narrow place. This is how the people of Israel spoke of their time in Egypt, as being caught in a narrow place, a tight spot, unable to go forward or back. This is the same wording found in the ninth verse of the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah, where Isaiah writes that there in that tight spot, their affliction, God was found to be there with them right there in their affliction. In his love,God saved them and in his pity he redeemed them, lifting them up in his arms and carrying them along the way. Here Isaiah reminds us that the God we worship is the living God, the very source of life himself, his life being the life which brings forth more life even in the lowest moments of our life.
When we know that our God is life always bringing forth more life, then it makes perfect sense that we will find him worthy to receive our life for we know that as we serve him, our life will join with God in bringing forth more life. When we find God worthy of the ultimate price, then it makes sense that our praises will become the sanctuary God dwells in. Did you hear the one-hundred and fourteenth Psalm say that Judah became his sanctuary and Israel his home? This idea is just a repeat of the truth found in the twenty-second Psalm which states that God is seated upon the praises of his people. When we appraise God and find that he is indeed the price of even our very life, then God is pleased to abide with us.
When this Psalm continues, it sings of how the sea looked at God and fled. This is a reference to a moment when the people of Israel stood in awe of God and rightfully, worshipped him. Of course, I’m referring to the parting of the Red Sea. This experience happened when Pharaoh came to his senses after a period of mourning, and he decided to take his army and chase down Moses and the people of Israel in order to bring them back into slavery. Now, the people of Israel had been led by God to camp right in front of the Red Sea. Well, this is right where the Egyptian army catches up with the people of Israel, a place of understandable worry. The people of Israel could see the Egyptian army bearing down on them from behind. Ahead of them, they saw the sea which to them was about to be their watery grave. So they began to complain, loudly and they grumbled, telling God that it would have been better to be a living slave then to be in the dead in the wilderness. Ever feel that way? Of course, all of us have at one time or another wondered just why God has led us to the situations we find ourselves in. Well, Moses tells the people of God to fear not, to stand firm and see the salvation of God. Then Moses tells them the Lord was going to fight for them, all God’s people had to do is to just shut up and watch God work.
So God tells Moses to go forward. When Moses lifts up his staff, the water separated so that all of the people of God could cross on dry ground. The water became like walls on either side of the people and they went right into the midst of the sea walking on dry ground. Well, the Egyptian army decides to pursue the people of Israel. The army charges into the midst of the sea but when the people of God were safely through the sea, Moses took his staff closed the sea over the Egyptian army burying them in a watery grave. So what began as worry for the people of God ended up being a time of worship instead. Moses could not contain himself. He sang a song of loudest praise, a worship song that influences all other worship songs. One of the most memorable lines Moses sang is this, “The Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation.” Moses is singing about his experience with God. He sings of how when all hope was gone, when their strength to keep going began to fade, this is when God came to them and gave them life. So, yes, God became known as their strength and they praised God for his gift of freedom and life with songs of praise. Yet now, standing on the far side of the sea, they knew something more about God. God is now to be known as their salvation. Our living God is the God who is life, a life which brings forth more life and this life given to us by God is a life that is greater than death. One of the greatest moments in the life of the people of God is when they realized that the God who gives us life is the same God who watches over that life to keep it safe. This is why we are told that all of the people sang, the women leading the praises with the sounds of tambourines and with dancing.
When we understand that hidden here in this one hundred and fourteenth Psalm is the one of God’s greatest victories, the very life of God’s people being snatched out of the jaws of death, we can begin to see how this would affect Jesus and his followers. Jesus knew that in the next few hours, he would have to endure being seized as if he were a criminal, hauled before an unjust court and tried on bogus charges. Jesus would be mocked and slapped, beaten and whipped and a crown of thorns pushed down hard upon his head. He would carry a heavy beam on his bloody shoulders to a place of death where he would be nailed to that beam and hoisted above the ground gasping for breath. Jesus was well aware of all of this as he sat there at the table even if no one else had any clue. Yet, in spite of this, Jesus continued to worship his Father. As the songs that Jesus sung reminded him, his Father is ever faithful to watch over the life of his dear Son, keeping his life safe, just as story of the Red Sea makes so clear.
Yet, as good as the one hundred and fourteenth Psalm is at reminding us of this high point in the life and worship of God’s people, this song also goes on to sing of what is perhaps the lowest point in the relationship of God and his people. The last stanza of this song says, “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.” While most people may not understand this reference, make no mistake, Jesus and his followers were well aware of the tragic event to which this verse points us to. In fact, Jesus would be acutely aware of what this means because this miracle of bringing water out of a rock is the where Jesus found the correct response when he too was tested for forty days in the wilderness.
The story of God bringing forth water from a rock happened shortly after the people of Israel were rescued at the Red Sea. In the seventeenth chapter of Exodus, we read of how God led his people deep into the heart of the wilderness, where worry began to shout at them so much louder than their worship. You see, God had led these former slaves to a place where there was no water at all to be found, anywhere. Go ahead and place yourself and your family into just such a situation and be honest, how is your anxiety level as you find that all of your canteens are empty. At this moment, be honest, what are you finding to be swelling up in you, overwhelming worry or overwhelming worship? Most of us are familiar with the song, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, but have you ever considered how the words of this song hit us different when we are going through a time when our worries seem to be louder than our worship. We are now, going to pause to sing that song. As you sing, listen to how the words of this song help us to worship when our worries prove louder than our worship. Turn now to page 139 in your hymnals and consider the truths this song speaks to us when life is at its worst.
Well, the very truths about God which we just sang about were long forgotten by the people of God as they worried there in the wilderness. For them the faithfulness of God was not great, no, for them, God’s faithfulness was absent. They cried out to Moses saying that since he had gotten them in this mess then he had better get them some water, and do it quick. Such is the voice of worry! It is right here that Moses hits upon the real issue in this situation because he asks the people this: Why do you test the Lord? In other words, the real question on their minds was this, “Is God with us or not? Has the living God abandoned us to death? Yet, we have to ask, do we really need to wonder if the God who has given us life, the God who has kept that life safe, is this God still with us? You see, this is the basis for all worry, this uncertainty of the goodness of our living God. This worry seems to be absent when Jesus was lead into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, a place Satan would test him. Satan wanted to know, is Jesus really is the Son of God? So Satan, in one of his tests, told Jesus to throw himself off of the highest point of the Temple, some four hundred feet off the ground. Satan wanted to see if the Heavenly Father would indeed keep the foot of Jesus from hitting the ground as is implied in the ninety-first Psalm. Jesus replied to Satan, “It is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus knew very well of this incident where God brought water from the rock, the place where the people of God let their worries become louder than their worship. Yet Jesus also knew that God inhabits our praises. Jesus understood that if we continue to serve God and worship him alone then God will be found making his home in our worship. You see, our living God remains the same in the best of times and in the worst of times, a God always worthy of offering our lives in service to him. The mountains and the hills are witnessed to be worshipping God, skipping and leaping before the Lord in every circumstance, so why are we not doing the same?
Well, it should come as no surprise that God did indeed have the means to bring forth life in the land where worries abound. We are told that Moses was instructed by God to strike a rock and out of this rock flowed a stream of water, bringing forth life and more life. “Where is God?”, came the question. God answered, “Of course, I am with you, always.” The God who parts the Red Sea is the same God who can bring forth water in the desert. The question remains: Why did the people of God stop praising him there deep in the wilderness? Why was it that their worries spoke louder than their worship? Why put God to the test when we can instead praise him and know with certainty that he dwells in our worship? The answer to worshiping God in our worst is for us to remember that God is not only our strength, and he is not only our song but our God is indeed our salvation.
Jesus did indeed remember the goodness of his Father so that he could worship him even beneath the shadow of the cross. You see, when we hear Jesus cry out from the cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”, this is not Jesus overcome by his worry. No, here Jesus is singing praises to his Father for this is the first line of the twenty-second Psalm. This song exclaims that, “….our God is holy, the one who our father’s trusted, and the God who delivered them.” This song Jesus sang is a song of defiance against all worry and anxiety for it praises God. Jesus knew our praises will be what God will call his home, even if that home is the cross. So Jesus had no need to worry for he never stopped finding his Father worthy of serving him. Jesus offered his life upon the cross so we might never forget that our worship can indeed shout louder than our worries. God be praised! Amen!
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